Quote:
Originally Posted by Humble Janitor
In regards to loving oneself, I still believe that we need to be careful as that "love" could manifest into a way of feeding the ego.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
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I think that loving yourself does not feed the ego more than hating yourself. The ego is your specific interface to the world, it is not bad or good or even has a preference for either. It tries to serve you by making the world as predictable and simple to interact with as possible.
Those who keep asking themselves questions like "Why does this always happen to me!" are at that moment surrendering control to their ego. When you engage in conflict because the other side started it, then it's the ego talking. You know you've given full control to your ego when you act on the level of stimulus response all the time.
Paradoxically this means that what seems like egotistical behavior on the surface. Can actually be a wise decision not guided by the ego at all. "No I'm not going to fix your problems for the gazillionth time." and "This is MY life..."
When you love yourself you're not giving control to the ego. In fact, it's often the only right thing to do to escape from the ego since the ego uses so many guilt (I aught to) games. So love yourself unconditionally first. You can forgive your own every mistake IF you make a real and honest attempt to avoid those mistakes either before making them or choosing to do so in the future. And once you are capable of loving yourself unconditionally. You will be able to accept other people loving you unconditionally. That's when it will happen. But paradoxically also you won't need it any more at that time.
We are all very much worthy of love. Unconditionally. Apparently since you feel you're not getting it. You feel you aught to be getting it. That means you have some conditionality left in how exactly the love is meant to be shared.